Number in series 8; Year of publication 1914 - Fell and Rock ...

22 THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB JOURNAL.
Herford thoughtfully hung a short loop over the tip
of the flake to assist us in the ascent, but even then we
required much help from above, and it was with a sense
of great relief that we found ourselves on the crest of the
flake. Murray, who had been observing us from the
recess with some interest, was delighted with an invitation
to join the party, so we lowered him a rope down the crack
and induced him to remove the threaded loop on the way
up.
We were well satisfied with the day's work, but not
with the climb, inasmuch as it left 150 feet of the Central
Buttress still unclimbed. Two days later, therefore, we
set out, greatly regretting Gibson's absence from the party,
to explore the upper part of the face.
Fifty feet above the top of the " Great Flake " on the
Central Buttress is an irregular V shaped grass ledge,
from the western end of which springs a wide chimney,
which is the lower section of a conspicuous Bayonet-
Shaped Crack, running up to the very top of the crags.
The upper section of this crack was, we knew, easy ; the
lower portion looked very unpleasant, but we hoped to
avoid it by climbing the steep face on the left. With
Holland and Slater belaying us, we climbed down steep
rocks to the V shaped ledge ioo feet below, and from there
were able to look down a remarkably smooth and almost
vertical wall to the top of the " Great Flake," 50 feet
lower. The wall was broken at one point by a rightangled
arete, which, in spite of the fact that it overhung
slightly, possessed sufficiently good holds to permit of a
comfortable descent of 25 feet. From its foot a wonderfully
exposed traverse across the almost vertical face on
the left enabled us to pass behind a large detached pinnacle
and climb slightly downwards to the shattered
ridge against the foot of which the " Great Flake " abuts.
Much elated at this discovery we climbed back to
Holland and Slater, and the three of us at once descended